Monthly Archives: April 2021

GEOX Kids’ new PLAYKIX Collection.

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We absolutely love these high-quality and innovative running shoes for kids. They are so stylish and they are waterproof. Win-win.

GEOX Kids’ new PLAYKIX COLLECTION that combines sustainability, technology and fashion to create a running shoe with a futuristic look.

Geox, trainers, children's kids,

  • The shoe cleverly captures foot movement and conveys this information via Bluetooth to the PLaykix App available on smartphones.
  • This sets in motion the adventures of GEOX Boy and GEOX Girl, encouraging them to play outside, while creating avatars who collect plastic waste, rid the air of pollution or repair vehicle that clean the environment.
  • By engaging in these digitised exciting activities, children are encouraged to actively interact with the environment in a responsible way, making walking more entertaining and fun.

 

GEOX PLAYKIX is available in a variety of bright vibrant colours and all  include the Geox-patented breathable waterproof outsole. https://www.geox.com/

 

Why You Need a Professional for Plumbing Repairs

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When you own your own property, all sorts of problems can arise that need to be dealt with. In a rented home, the landlord would generally sort these out, but as a homeowner, you need to do it yourself. When it comes to plumbing issues, which are common issues in homes, you need to ensure you do not make matters worse by attempting to do the work yourself. This could actually end up costing you more money in the long run as well as wasting your time.

What you need to do in the event of plumbing issues in your home is contact an experienced professional with a solid reputation. Someone with expertise and experience when it comes to plumbing repairs can ensure the job is completed quickly, efficiently, and to high standards. This will make life far easier for you and could be far cheaper than finding someone who is not qualified or attempting it yourself.

Why This Is So Important

There are many reasons why it is so important to use a professional and reputable plumbing expert for your plumbing issues. Some of these are:

Avoiding Wasting Your Time

If you attempt plumbing jobs yourself without the necessary experience, knowledge, and tools, you will simply end up wasting your own time and possibly being back at square one – or in a worse situation – at the end of it all. With a qualified professional, the work will be done properly, and you won’t have to spend time trying to work it out yourself.

Avoid Making the Problem Worse

Another reason you need a professional for plumbing work at your home is that it means you won’t end up making the problem worse. If you make a mistake, you could end up causing more damage and this will then cost you more money to put right. With a professional, the job will be completed to professional standards.

Save Money

Following on from the last point, getting a professional in can save you money because you are not risking making the problem worse. You won’t have to go out and spend money on tools to try and fix the issue, and you won’t be spending your time trying to work out a problem you know nothing about, so you can get on with other things. All of this can save you both money and time.

Get the Job Done Right

One other reason to get a professional in is that you can benefit from greater peace of mind because the job will be done properly and to high standards. You won’t keep having the same problem over and over again, and even if you do, a reputable professional will get it sorted out for you. This makes the whole process far easier and means that you can get the plumbing issues sorted out quickly and permanently.

These are some of the reasons why it is so important to get a professional out to work on plumbing issues at your home. 
Collaborative post with our brand partner.

Living with Alzheimer’s – I am an Essential Caregiver by Chris Suich

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At last, I’m Bob’s ‘essential care giver’!

It has been a tumultuous battle this year for me and many thousands more up and down the country who have been desperately fighting to see their loved ones in care homes for a year and more. Our loved one’s mental health and well-being have not being considered; the laws that are there to protect the vulnerable have been ignored. I was reading recently that there is a catastrophic hidden cost of Covid because many dementia sufferers have simply given up, refused food, and died because they do not understand why their loved ones have stopped coming to see them. Despair and loneliness the silent killer.
My husband went into care just a week before the first lockdown when there was no vaccine and limited knowledge about how to halt this pandemic’s spread. I understood why I wasn’t allowed in and resorted to waving from the road or at the window with the British spirit of ‘ stiff upper lip’ and put my own agonies aside as this terrible Covid 19 meant we all had sacrifices to make. I was kept away, not able to hold his hands –even outside in the summer when the R rate was low, even though I was willing to wear PPE and do anything else required.  Then he caught Covid inside the home but fought and got better from it. This was devastating and the site was closed – all window visits stopped and I heard nothing for two months until I begged the GP to check on him.

Today we are in a very different position; so it makes no sense why some care homes cannot follow the latest government guidance of April 2021 and allow indoor visits mitigating risk, using lateral flow tests and PPE for all care homes everywhere.

For my part, I have been well supported by the founders of John’s Campaign – Julia Jones and Nicci Gerrard, as well as Leigh and Day solicitors and Rights for Residents founders Diane Mayhew and Jenny Morrison. Their steadfast advice and ability to cut through the legislation to make it clear and understandable has been invaluable. The publicity they have commanded on media, TV and radio raising the profile of care home visiting and the articulate way Jenny spoke to the Harriet Harman  select committee recently has been both humbling and a cause for jubilation. She spoke for me and for everyone.

I did everything I could to try to persuade the manager to let me in. I explained about ‘end of life’ being 6-12 months not just imminent death. The guidance states this and also that visits should be facilitated. But to be brutally honest, it wasn’t until we sought legal advice and sent a letter that a meeting with the Regional manager was organised which resulted in making me an essential care giver. In addition, Joe, our eldest son has been made a  designated visitor when he can get freed up from his shifts in the hospital. There is a very detailed personalised risk assessment. I have PCR test and a  lateral flow with the carers and home staff weekly and another lateral flow test every time I visit. It is a small inconvenience. I can now see my Bob for two whole hours twice a week in his room. I am ecstatic.

Much has changed. He doesn’t ask to hold my hand anymore he’s forgotten how to hold hands. I still hold his though and stroke his hands and face. He doesn’t know who I am anymore but he knows I’m ‘lovely’. He rarely understands but he seems content and searches my face and loves it when I smile. I play him lots of music. The tracks from his youth. The bands he actually booked when he was President of the Entertainment Committee whilst at Sheffield University in the 70s. Our youngest son still in Australia has suggested a playlist.
I try to keep to a routine. He likes a hot chocolate and I feed it to him at 3 pm in a beaker every time I visit. I give him chocolate buttons on his tongue. I always play ‘Oblah  Dee Oblah dah’ and he has started to la la la which I’m thrilled  about. I think he’s happy when I’m there, he chitter chats in a completely non-sensical way but I go along with it all. I’m trying to get a little bit back from him and I’m succeeding. He looks better and is not so agitated. He lets me put his cardigan on without a fight and brush his teeth with a soft brush. He does still call out randomly and hallucinate but generally he’s content. I too am content. I can check he’s clean, his room is kept nice and he’s as healthy as can be expected. The carers are kind and courteous to me. I thank them. They cannot fail to see the bond between us. He’s still there deep inside and he does come back to me a little every visit.
So today I had another visit and it does us both good. I left him wrapped in the memory blanket with the pictures of our family on it.
I am very lucky to have this precious time and I pray that everyone will see their loved ones soon, before it’s too late.

Selling your home – DIY upgrade tips

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Selling your home typically means you’re done with the place and you’re ready to move on – yet this is the time you need to love your property more than any other time during your stay! Why? Because if your home doesn’t gleam with care and attention, what you are selling is not a home, but a property. And where you are selling four unloved walls, potential buyers are less likely to make an emotional connection with the place.

Making a sale that is as close to the asking price as possible isn’t about finding the most gullible buyer out there and convincing them of legendary treasure hidden in the walls. It’s about making people feel that the walls have value. It’s a tough sell. But it’s possible. 

Declutter now or forever regret it

Do you know how to properly get rid of your microwave when it breaks? Do you know if your local waste disposal plant will accept old mattresses? Or where to take large heavy stonework from garden designs gone by? Maybe you do know these things. But most people don’t know them. And that’s why yards and garages tend to be stacked high with cumbersome this-n-thats, collecting dust and costing you dearly in the home seller stakes.

Remember, people don’t want to walk around imagining what the place would look like if it weren’t for your piles of books and magazines, or what the hall and stairs might look like if you hadn’t covered the walls in an endless sea of chintzy photo frames (just think of all the damage to the walls – buyers notice that stuff). The bottom line is you must sort out your clutter. It’s that simple. 

Decorate. Every room. No excuses. 

When was the last time you decorated your spare bedroom? Are those tiles above your kitchen sink more than 10 years old? What about the carpets in your lounge? More than maybe five years old? 

Members of the general public may be foolish but they’re not stupid. You can’t pass off your ageing interiors for modern prices. By all means, try it. And when the only offer you get is something like half a year’s wages below the asking price because the buyer needs funds to remodel, you might want to go back to square one and consider those decorating plans after all.

The little things make up the big things 

Speaking from experience, a childhood friend’s house used to smell like soup. They didn’t eat a lot of soup. But the air was grungy and heavy, like a pan of bubbling soup was always on the go. Not only that, the stairs creaked like thunder and the backyard was filled with dog muck (they kept two dogs, who appeared to be in perpetual competition with one another to see who could produce the most dog muck in one day … it was pretty much always a tie).

You know your home. If you’re honest with yourself, from animal smells to creaking doors and knocking pipes, you know what you need to sort out.

 

Collaborative post with our brand partner.

 

Incredible cast announced for the premiere of The Global Playground by Theatre-Rites Manchester International Festival 2021

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Friday 2nd July – Sunday 18th July 2021

Amplifying diverse voices from a team of international collaborators, Theatre-Rites have announced the outstanding cast for The Global Playground, which will mark this acclaimed company’s 25th anniversary. An innovative production which mixes dance, music, theatre and puppetry, this exciting production will premiere simultaneously at the Manchester International Festival and online this July.

The Global Playground examines our essential human connections and how these have both grown and become disjointed through digital connections. The incredible ensemble cast features acclaimed dancers Jahmarley Bachelor (Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Zoonation), Annie Edwards (A Kate Prince Company), Kennedy Junior Muntanga (Phoenix Dance Theatre), and Charmene Pang (Isadora Now: A Triple Bill, The Barbican). Joining them are renowned puppeteer and actor Sean Garratt (A Christmas Carol, National Theatre of Scotland), and celebrated percussionist Merlin Jones (Birmingham Symphony Orchestra).

Director Sue Buckmaster comments, As Theatre-Rites turns 25 I have been reflecting on the importance of the connections we have developed with artists and our audiences, how it is our responsibility to nurture and empower both. As a company we have always been driven by the child’s needs and we know that young people’s futures will be a fluid experience of online and real adventures. The Global Playground, with its exceptional cast, is our gift to our audience of young people and to their carers; a chance to reflect on how they can be fully present, wherever they are and however they are connecting. A truly fitting way to celebrate our exciting return to Manchester International Festival and to live theatre.

To mark their 25th anniversary, Theatre-Rites will be publishing a book celebrating the company and the incredible artists they have worked with. The book will also tell the fascinating story of Artistic Director Sue Buckmaster, who lives with ME, and her puppeteer father who inspired her work. The book will be published on 29th July and has been co-written with Dr Liam Jarvis, Theatre-Rites board member and lecturer at Essex University.

The Global Playground Dates Friday 2nd July – Sunday 18th July 2021

Performance times Thursday – Friday, 7pm Saturday – Sunday, 11am and 3pm There will be an additional performance on Wednesday 14th July at 3pm

Location Unit 5, Great Northern Warehouse, 235 Deansgate, Manchester M3 4EN This production will also be presented digitally. How to Get There: Unit 5, Great Northern Warehouse is a 5 minute walk from Deansgate Station or a 20 minute walk from either Manchester Piccadilly or Victoria Stations. Parking is available at NCP Great Northern opposite the venue.

Running Time 75 minutes TBC

Ages Recommended for ages 8+ Website theatre-rites.co.uk

Social media @TheatreRites

 

Tropical Collection by Monique Lucas | Interiors

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Island inspired kitchen & dining ware that will transport you to sunny climes.

New Tropical Collection from Monique Luca New Tropical Collection from Monique Luca

Welcome in the summer months with these gorgeous new tropical patterns from Monique Lucas, inspired by a love of islands near and far. The hand drawn designs include Pineapples, Hibiscus, Flamingos, Palm Trees, Parrots and Daiquiris. 

All products are designed and made in the UK, using organic cotton and eco-friendly inks. 

Founded in 2018, Monique Lucas turned her full attention to her namesake brand in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic. Inspired by her love of islands, both the ones she grew up on and those she’s visited, Monique combined this with her passion for interiors and patterns to create her designs. Whether the exotic islands of the Far East, the sultry Florida Keys, or the more homely islands around the UK, Monique has found continual inspiration from coastal life. The surroundings of the sea, greenery and ever-changing nature inform and inspire the detailed, vibrant designs. 

New Tropical Collection from Monique Luca New Tropical Collection from Monique Luca

Monique Lucas products can be purchased directly from www.moniquelucas.co.uk and are also available from Not On The High Street. International shipping available. 

PRICING:

  • Napkins start from £38 for a set of 4

  • Oven gloves start from £20

  • Tea Towels start from £16

  • Aprons start from £32

  • Monique Lucas is also available for wholesale from faire.com

 

My Writing Process: Marika Cobbold | How I write.

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monika cobbold, author. in hampstead heath. What you have written, past and present.

I’ve written eight novels, a number of short stories, and I also write for newspapers, here in the UK and in my native Sweden.

What you are promoting now.
We authors prefer to think that we’re not so much promoting as drawing your attention with cunning and stealth, but leaving that to one side, my new novel, On Hampstead Heath is just out so, of course, I want everyone to know about it. It’s a novel about Truth and its ugly stepsister, Fake News and it tells a news story written and filed, in haste and a haze of gin, by my otherwise principled journalist protagonist, Thorn Marsh. Written and deeply regretted the morning after, by which time the story of the Angel of the Heath has gone viral and it’s all Thorn can do to survive the fall-out. It’s a serious book, at heart, but also, I hope, fun to read.

monika cobbold, author. in hampstead heath.

A bit about your process of writing.

Slow, is the best way of describing it. On Hampstead Heath, at some 240 pages, is a relatively short novel, but it, or variations of it, took me the best part of ten years, and some several thousand discard pages, to write. Not all my books have proven so challenging to write but the process is similar with each one: I dream and think and make notes by longhand. (I’ve discovered a wonderful make of notebooks called Leuchtturm, they’re a bit like Moleskin but even nicer.) A filled notebook or two later, I sit down to write the book proper, always straight onto my laptop. My handwriting is too painfully bad to lend itself to long-form. I then go back over and over the same fifty or so pages, perfecting every last word. I eventually progress, only to realise that most of those preceding pages are now redundant to the story and have to be discarded. It’s not so much “kill your darlings” as the Texas Chain Massacre.

What About Word Count.

I think more in terms of pages, but on average, I suppose I write between six and eight hundred words a day.

How do you do your structure.

Part of it is intuitive; I build my structure as I go along. Then, with each ensuing draft (I do at least ten complete drafts before I get to a version that I feel I can send to my agent and editor), I cut and paste and shape and shift. Finally, I print out and go through the entire manuscript, notebook in hand, for a final shaping of the text.

What do you find hard about writing.
I think an easier question, in my case, would be, What don’t you find hard about writing? To which the answer would be, the point where I’ve worked myself into near insanity over a number of months, or even years, to find the story really is beginning to take on a life of its own. By then I know my characters as well, or better than I know myself, and subsequently, the writing flows.

What do you love about writing?
That final push, and the rare eureka moments when I look over a paragraph just written and think, “That’s not bad, not bad at all!”.

On Hampstead Heath by Marika Cobbold is out in hardback by Arcadia.

The Philip Kingsley Hero Range to tackle Fine, Flat Hair

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Philip Kingsley is a hero of the hair world. Their products are outstanding and innovative. The Body Building Range for fine hair is no exception. They are all great products that all work in sync with each other to give you your best possible hair.

Philip Kingsley’s best-selling hero range, The Body Building Range for fine hair, to create bigger bouncier beautiful hair.

Each product is layerable and designed to complement one another for a full proof care and styling regime, guaranteed to add enviable body and bounce. Using products with plumping ingredients is essential when choosing the right shampoo , conditioning and styling products for fine hair. Copolymers control flyaways and static, Natural Cellulose thickens the texture of fine strands, Keratin Proteins help strengthen, whilst Wheat Protein works to plump each individual strand.

Body Building Weightless Shampoo (250ml, £20)

Volumising Weightless shampoo for fine hair, adds volume and bounce from root to tip.

 

Body Building Weightless Conditioner (200ml, £20)

A hydrating weightless conditioner which adds moisture and volume to shorter, fine, flat, flyaway hair.

 

Maximizer Root Boosting Spray (125ml, £19)

A heat-activated spray that provides instant root lift, and helps with frizz control and flyaways.

 

Maximizer Strand Plumping Cream (75ml, £22)

Plumping cream that smoothes frizz and provides instant volume to fine limp locks.

The range is available here.